If you run a service business, you might have noticed the Products section on your Google Business Profile and wondered whether you should be using it. After all, products are normally associated with physical items. If you're a plumber, electrician, landscaper, cleaner or another service provider, you might assume this feature isn't relevant to your business. But there's an important marketing principle here: your services are also products that customers buy. When available and appropriate for your business profile, the Products feature can give you another way to present what you offer, explain the benefits to customers and direct interested people towards relevant pages on your website. Used properly, it can help you create a more informative Google Business Profile and make it easier for potential customers to understand why they should choose your business. Let's look at how it works. 1. What Is the Products Section on Google Business Profile? Google Business Profile provides several ways to tell customers about your business, including categories, services, photographs, reviews and, for eligible profiles, products. A product listing can include: A photograph representing your product or service. A product name and category. A description explaining what you offer. A link to a relevant page on your website, where supported. A call-to-action button, such as Learn More, where available. Many business owners overlook this area because they assume it's only intended for businesses selling physical goods. However, where Google makes the feature available and permits the type of listing, it can offer a useful way to showcase a service. For example, a landscaping company might use a visually appealing photograph of a professionally maintained garden to demonstrate its lawn care offering. Instead of simply listing "Lawn Mowing", it can explain the experience and benefits of having someone else take care of the garden. The important distinction is that you're not just describing a service. You're presenting something that solves a customer's problem. It's worth noting that the Products feature isn't available to every business, and Google has specific policies for product listings. Service businesses should use the dedicated Services section as their primary way of listing services. 2. Connect Your Google Business Profile Categories and Services One of the most common mistakes I see when auditing Google Business Profiles is businesses that haven't properly organised their categories and services. Google allows businesses to select a primary category and, where relevant, up to nine additional categories. Imagine a plumbing business that offers: General plumbing repairs. Drainage services. Hot water cylinder installation. Gas fitting. Emergency plumbing. Rather than relying on one broad category, the business should review whether additional categories accurately describe the work it actually carries out. It should then organise its services beneath the appropriate available categories. Your categories help explain what type of business you operate, while your services describe the individual jobs you perform. For businesses with access to suitable product listings, these can provide another customer-facing opportunity to highlight important offerings. The key is consistency. Don't claim services or categories simply because Google makes them available. Select the ones that genuinely represent your business. 3. Use Product Listings to Highlight Your Most Valuable Services Not every service deserves the same level of promotion. Some services generate considerably more profit than others. Some produce ongoing work, while others attract the ideal customers you want to work with. If you're considering which offerings to feature more prominently, concentrate on services that: Generate healthy profit margins. Attract your ideal customers. Have strong local demand. Represent areas where you want to grow. Can be supported by a dedicated page on your website. For example, a gardening company might offer lawn mowing, hedge trimming, garden maintenance and complete garden tidy-ups. Instead of promoting everything equally, it might concentrate its marketing on a comprehensive garden maintenance package. This presents a more valuable offering than simply advertising an hourly lawn mowing service. And that brings us to one of the most important parts of marketing any service: how you write the description. 4. How to Write a Service Product Description That Attracts Customers When writing descriptions for services, I use a simple formula. It works because most customers aren't particularly interested in the technical details of how you do your work. They're interested in the results they will receive. My approach follows four steps: 1. The desired outcome 2. The customer's problems and frustrations 3. Your solution 4. A clear call to action Let's use a lawn mowing and gardening service to demonstrate how this works. Start With the Desired Outcome People don't necessarily want their lawns mowed. What they really want is a beautiful garden without spending their weekends maintaining it. They want time to relax, enjoy their hobbies, go fishing, watch their children play sport or simply spend quality time with their families. Your opening paragraph should connect with that desired result. Example: "Imagine enjoying your weekends without worrying about mowing lawns, trimming hedges or keeping your garden looking beautiful. Come home to a professionally maintained outdoor space and spend your free time doing the things you enjoy." That communicates the benefit rather than merely listing what the business does. Identify the Problems and Frustrations Next, explain the problems the customer wants to avoid. For gardening services, these might include: Spending hours mowing lawns. Cutting and trimming overgrown hedges. Removing garden waste. Maintaining gardening equipment. Sharpening mower blades. Finding time to keep everything looking tidy. By highlighting these frustrations, you demonstrate that you understand your customer's situation. Explain Your Solution Now introduce the service as the natural solution. For example: "Our complete garden maintenance service takes care of everything, including lawn mowing, hedge trimming, garden tidy-ups, weeding and green waste removal. We bring the equipment, complete the work and leave your outdoor areas looking their best." The customer can now see how your service removes the problems you've described. Finish With a Clear Call to Action Finally, tell the customer what to do next. Examples include: "Learn more about our complete garden maintenance service." Or: "Request your free garden maintenance assessment." Where Google provides an appropriate website link button, direct people to the relevant service page rather than sending everyone to your homepage. This helps potential customers find the information they're looking for. 5. Why Your Website Needs to Support Your Google Business Profile Your Google Business Profile and website should work together. If you're promoting drainage services through your profile, ideally you should also have a dedicated drainage service page on your website. That page should explain: The drainage problems you solve. The services you provide. The geographical areas you cover. Why customers should trust your business. How customers can contact you. Include relevant photographs, customer testimonials and examples of completed work where possible. This creates a consistent customer experience. Someone who discovers your business through Google can follow the link to your website and find more detailed information about exactly the service they're interested in. It also helps Google understand the relevance of your website to particular services, although simply adding product listings doesn't guarantee improved rankings. If you're unsure whether your profile and website contain the information they should, I've put together a Google Business Profile checklist to help you review the important areas. 6. More Visibility Is Only Half the Battle Getting your business seen on Google Maps and local search is important. But visibility doesn't automatically translate into enquiries. Think about what happens when someone searches for a local plumber. They might discover several businesses offering the same service. Before making contact, they could examine: Customer reviews and ratings. Business photographs. Services offered. Website information. How established and professional the business appears. Your aim is to make your business the natural choice. A detailed, informative Google Business Profile can help customers understand your offering and feel more confident about contacting you. Remember that your Google Business Profile doesn't charge you for organic profile clicks or calls. That makes it a valuable marketing asset worth maintaining alongside your website and any paid advertising. 7. Review Your Google Business Profile Regularly Your Google Business Profile shouldn't be something you set up once and forget about. As your business develops, your services, photographs, priorities and website content may change. Review your profile periodically to make sure it accurately reflects what you currently offer. Pay particular attention to your categories, service descriptions, website links and the services you most want to promote. If you'd like a second opinion, you can start with a free Google Business Profile audit to identify opportunities for improvement. Conclusion: Should Service Businesses Use Products on Google Business Profiles? The most important thing is to make full use of the Google Business Profile features that are available and appropriate for your particular business. Start by selecting accurate business categories, completing your Services section and making sure your website supports the work you advertise. Where suitable product-style listings are supported, they can provide another opportunity to showcase valuable offerings and communicate the benefits to potential customers. Focus on the outcome your customers want, the problems they're trying to avoid and how your business provides the solution. Because ultimately, people aren't buying a list of services. They're buying the results those services deliver.
Should you use Google Business Profile posts to promote your business? Absolutely. They're free, relatively simple to create, and can help turn people who find your business on Google into paying customers. Yet I'm continually surprised by how many small business owners don't even realise this feature exists. Most businesses are familiar with posting on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. They spend hours creating content, sharing photographs and trying to increase their followers. But there's another place you should seriously consider putting that content: your Google Business Profile. In this article, I'll explain three things you need to understand about Google Business Profile posts, how they compare with social media, and how you can use seasonal offers to generate more enquiries without paying for advertising. 1. Google Business Profile Posts vs Social Media Posts Let's start with something I regularly see when talking to small business owners. They've got someone looking after their social media, posting photographs, videos and updates on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or TikTok. Sometimes it's a younger employee who's grown up using these platforms and understands how to create engaging content. And there's nothing necessarily wrong with that. But here's the question I always ask: Are those posts actually generating enquiries, phone calls and paying customers? Because there's a big difference between getting attention and getting business. Social Media Likes Don't Automatically Pay the Bills It's easy to get caught up in likes, followers and views. A business owner tells me they've got 1,000 Facebook followers, which sounds impressive. But that doesn't mean all 1,000 people see every post. Social platforms use algorithms to determine which content appears in people's feeds, and organic reach can vary considerably. If you want to reach more people, you may end up paying to boost your posts. There's also another consideration. Many of your social media followers already know your business. They're existing customers, friends, previous customers or people who've interacted with your content before. That's useful for staying in touch, but a major part of marketing is attracting people who don't already know you exist. And that's where Google becomes particularly interesting. Google Reaches People Who Are Already Searching Think about someone looking for a gutter cleaning company in Christchurch. They open Google and search for a local business offering that service. They aren't necessarily interested in following a gutter cleaning company on Facebook. They've got a problem they want solved. And if they find your Google Business Profile, there's an opportunity for them to see your latest updates, photographs or special offers. That's the important distinction. Social media can help create awareness, while Google Business Profile posts can help influence people who are already considering a business like yours. Social media posts can also appear in Google Search, so the difference isn't simply that one platform gets indexed and another doesn't. The bigger advantage of Google Business Profile posts is their placement within the business information customers may already be viewing. 2. The Three Types of Google Business Profile Posts Google provides three main types of posts, and understanding when to use each one is important. Updates: Show Customers What You Do Update posts are ideal for sharing information about your business and the services you provide. For example, if you're a painter, roofer, electrician or landscape gardener, you could publish: Before-and-after photographs of completed jobs. Examples of particular services. New products or equipment. Seasonal maintenance advice. Updates about recent projects. I particularly like before-and-after photographs because they immediately demonstrate what your business can achieve. If you're trying to attract more enquiries for a particular service, publish relevant examples of that work. You could also link to a page on your website explaining the service in more detail. This gives potential customers another reason to consider contacting you. Offers: Generate Business During Quieter Periods This is one of my favourite uses of Google Business Profile posts. Most service businesses experience quieter periods throughout the year. Rather than simply accepting a quiet month, why not create a series of special offers? For example, you could prepare four different offers, each running for seven days. Google allows you to specify start and end dates for offer posts, so customers can see when the promotion is valid. But there's something important to understand. Your offer has to be worth taking advantage of. A small discount that nobody finds particularly exciting probably won't generate much interest. You need to think about what would genuinely motivate someone to make an enquiry. Example: Gutter Cleaning and Roof Moss Treatment Imagine you operate a roof cleaning business. You've already got the equipment, ladders and staff needed to clean gutters and treat roofs. Instead of promoting each service separately, you could combine them. Week 1 offer: Book a full-price gutter cleaning service and receive 50% off a roof moss treatment. Week 2 offer: Book a roof moss treatment and receive 50% off gutter cleaning. Why might this work? Because you're already visiting the property. Your team is there, the equipment is there, and some of the travel and setup costs have already been covered. Adding the second service may cost considerably less than making an entirely separate visit. You're potentially increasing the average value of each job while giving customers a worthwhile incentive. Of course, you'll need to calculate your costs and margins to make sure the promotion is profitable. But this is the sort of offer I'd rather see than simply advertising 10% off everything. Events: Promote Something Happening on Specific Dates The third option is an event post. These are particularly useful when your business has something happening on a particular date. Examples might include an open day, product demonstration, workshop, community event or special information evening. You can include the event dates, photographs, a description and a relevant link. Event posts won't suit every service business, but when you've got something worth promoting, they're another useful option. 3. Google Business Profile Posts Are Free One of the biggest advantages is that Google doesn't charge you to publish these posts. You don't need an advertising budget. You don't need to pay to boost a post. And you don't need expensive software to create them. You can publish updates, offers and events through your Google Business Profile without a posting fee. That doesn't mean Google will automatically promote your offer to everyone searching for your services. Your post's visibility depends on where and how your Business Profile is displayed. But it does mean you can provide useful information to prospective customers without paying for each click or impression. For a small business working with a limited marketing budget, that's worth taking advantage of. How Often Should You Post on Google Business Profile? I'd suggest starting with one good-quality post each week. That could mean four posts per month, mixing useful updates with seasonal promotions. If you've got a particular service you want more enquiries for, consider creating additional posts featuring that service. For example, a roofing company might publish a before-and-after roof cleaning photograph, a seasonal moss treatment reminder, a customer project and a limited-time offer. The objective isn't simply to publish more content. It's to make sure the content is relevant to what your customers need. Google doesn't guarantee higher local rankings because you publish more frequently, so focus on quality, relevance and genuine customer value. How to Create Your First Google Business Profile Post The process is straightforward. Sign in to the Google account managing your Business Profile. Open your Google Business Profile. Select Posts, then Add post. Choose Update, Offer or Event. Add a clear description and relevant photograph. Include dates and terms where appropriate. Add a suitable website link or action button if available. Publish your post. For offers, make sure customers can easily understand what's included, how long the promotion runs and any conditions. If you're unsure whether other important parts of your profile are set up correctly, my Google Business Profile checklist covers the areas worth reviewing. Don't Just Chase Visibility — Turn It Into Customers There's one final point I want to make. Getting more visibility on Google Maps is useful, but visibility alone doesn't pay the bills. What really matters is what happens after somebody finds your business. Do they trust you? Are your reviews encouraging? Do your photographs demonstrate the quality of your work? Is it easy to contact you or make a booking? Your Google Business Profile posts can support that process by giving prospective customers more reasons to choose you. But they work best alongside an accurate profile, relevant services, strong reviews and a useful website. If you'd like to identify opportunities to improve your local visibility and enquiries, you can start with a free Google Business Profile audit . Conclusion: Should You Use Google Business Profile Posts? Yes. I would encourage most local service businesses to use them. They're free to publish, allow you to promote seasonal offers and give customers more information about what your business provides. Start by creating one useful post each week. Use before-and-after photographs, showcase the services you want more work for, and experiment with relevant seasonal offers. Most importantly, judge the results by enquiries, bookings and customers — not simply how many views a post receives. Because the real purpose of marketing isn't to collect likes and followers. It's to make the phone ring and bring more business through the door.
If you're wondering whether you should add all your services to your Google Business Profile, the short answer is yes. But how you organise those services can make a significant difference to how clearly Google understands your business and how easily potential customers find you. One of the most common mistakes I see when reviewing Google Business Profiles is businesses adding dozens of services without properly considering their business categories. They might have 50, 70 or even 94 services listed, but everything is grouped under one primary category. The problem isn't necessarily the number of services. It's how they're organised. Your Google Business Profile categories and services work together to describe your business. Getting that structure right can help improve your relevance for local searches and make it easier for customers to understand exactly what you offer. Let's look at the wrong way, the right way and one additional step on your website that many businesses overlook. Why Adding Services to Your Google Business Profile Matters When someone searches Google Maps for a particular service, Google tries to identify businesses that are relevant to that search. Your business categories are an important part of that process, while your listed services provide additional detail about what you offer. For example, someone searching for an electrician might be looking for a completely different service from someone searching for heat pump installation or electrical repairs. Even though one business might provide all three services, those searches can have different intentions. That's why it's worth taking the time to organise your profile correctly rather than simply adding everything to one long list. The Wrong Way to Add Google Business Profile Services When you open your Google Business Profile dashboard, you'll find an option called Edit Services . Naturally, most business owners click that button and start adding everything they do. Google may suggest services as you go, so it's easy to keep adding more. Before long, you might have 94 services sitting under a single business category. Some might be closely related to that category, while others are quite different. The result can be a rather higgledy-piggledy collection of services with very little structure. Although listing those services isn't automatically wrong, you may be missing an opportunity to describe the different parts of your business more accurately. The better approach is to look at your categories first. The Right Way: Organise Services Using Google Business Profile Categories Google allows businesses to select one primary category and up to nine additional categories. However, that doesn't mean every business should use ten categories. You should only select categories that genuinely describe what your business is and the work it provides. Step 1: Review Your Existing Services Start by looking at all the services you've already added to your profile. If you've got 94 services, don't start deleting them. Instead, copy them into a document or spreadsheet and examine how they relate to one another. You might find they fall naturally into four or five different service groups. Step 2: Use ChatGPT to Help Group Your Services One simple method is to copy your list of services into ChatGPT and ask it to suggest relevant Google Business Profile categories. For example, you could use this prompt: "Here is a list of services my business provides. Group these services into appropriate Google Business Profile categories. Suggest a primary category and relevant secondary categories, using official Google Business Profile category names available in New Zealand." This can save you considerable time. However, there's one important point: ChatGPT doesn't always get the official category names right. Sometimes Google's categories use American terminology or wording that isn't what you'd naturally use in New Zealand. Always check the suggested categories against the actual options available in your Google Business Profile. Step 3: Add the Relevant Secondary Categories Once you've identified suitable categories: Open your Google Business Profile. Select Edit Profile . Find your business category settings. Keep the most appropriate primary category. Add the relevant secondary categories. Save your changes. For example, you might end up with one primary category and four additional categories. Now you've got a more descriptive structure for your business. Step 4: Organise Your Services Under Those Categories Next, return to Edit Services and review how your services are organised. Where Google's available categories and service options allow it, group the relevant services under their corresponding business categories. You may still have those same 94 services, but they're now arranged into more meaningful groups. The categories tell Google what types of business activities you provide, while the services explain the specific work customers can contact you about. This creates a clearer picture of your business for both Google and potential customers. Don't Forget Your Website: It Needs to Support Your Google Business Profile This is the next step I regularly see businesses overlook. Once you've organised your Google Business Profile categories, you need to look at your website. Does your website clearly explain the services and business activities you've listed on Google? If not, you've got more work to do. Your website should support the information you're providing through your Google Business Profile. Create Pages Around Your Main Service Categories Imagine you've selected five Google Business Profile categories, each covering several different services. Ideally, your website should have relevant content for each of those main service areas. Depending on how your business operates, this might mean creating a dedicated page for each major service category. For example, an electrical company might have separate pages for: Residential electrical services Commercial electrical services Heat pump installation Electrical repairs and maintenance Each page should explain the work you do, who you help and which services you provide. This also helps visitors find the information they're looking for without having to search through one enormous services page. How Much Website Content Do You Need? This depends partly on how competitive your market is. In smaller cities, a well-written category page covering several closely related services may be a sensible starting point. However, in larger cities or highly competitive industries, you'll often need more detailed content. For important services, consider including a dedicated section containing a useful explanation and a relevant photograph. For your main revenue-generating services, creating individual service pages may be even better. Don't simply list 15 service names and assume that's enough. Explain what the service involves, who it's for, the problems it solves and why someone should choose your business. The aim is to create genuinely helpful website content rather than pages written solely for search engines. Keep Your Google Business Profile and Website Consistent Google may review changes to your Business Profile, and information that doesn't accurately represent your business can cause problems. That's another reason to make sure the services and categories you select genuinely reflect the work you perform. Your website, business categories and listed services should tell a consistent story. For example, if your profile says you provide commercial electrical installation, your website should ideally explain that service rather than focusing entirely on residential work. If you're unsure whether your profile is properly structured, my free Google Business Profile audit can help identify areas worth reviewing. Getting More Visibility Is Only Half the Job Organising your categories and services is an important part of improving your Google Business Profile. But there's something else to remember. Getting found on Google Maps doesn't automatically mean you're going to get more customers. You might improve your visibility and attract more people to your profile, but what happens when they get there? Do they see a business they trust? Are your reviews strong enough? Are your photographs professional and relevant? Is it obvious what you do and how customers can contact you? These things matter because visibility is only the first step. The real objective is turning that visibility into telephone calls, enquiries, appointments and paying customers. My Google Business Profile checklist covers the important areas worth checking to help make sure your profile is working effectively. Conclusion: Add Your Services, But Get the Structure Right So, should you add all your services to your Google Business Profile? Yes, provided they're services your business genuinely offers. But don't just add a long list and forget about it. Review your primary category, identify relevant secondary categories and organise your services as clearly as possible. Then make sure your website backs up what your Google Business Profile says about your business. These improvements can help Google and potential customers understand your business more clearly, although they don't guarantee higher rankings. And remember, the end goal isn't simply to appear more often on Google Maps. It's to turn that visibility into more enquiries, more bookings and ultimately more customers. That's what makes your Google Business Profile a valuable part of your marketing.